The first release candidate for WordPress 5.5 is now available!
This is an important milestone in the community’s progress toward the final release of WordPress 5.5.
“Release Candidate” means that the new version is ready for release, but with millions of users and thousands of plugins and themes, it’s possible something was missed. WordPress 5.5 is slated for release on August 11, 2020, but we need your help to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.5 yet, now is the time!
You can test the WordPress 5.5 release candidate in two ways:
Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the Beta releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.
What’s in WordPress 5.5?
WordPress 5.5 has lots of refinements to polish the developer experience. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developer notes tag for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.
Plugin and Theme Developers
Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.5 and update the Tested up to version in the readme file to 5.5. If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the support forums, so those can be figured out before the final release.
The WordPress 5.5 Field Guide, due very shortly, will give you a more detailed dive into the major changes.
How to Help
Do you speak a language other than English? Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages! This release also marks the hard string freeze point of the 5.5 release schedule.
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, fill one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
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WordPress 5.5 Beta 4 is now available!
This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.
You can test WordPress 5.5 Beta 4 in two ways:
WordPress 5.5 is slated for release on August 11th, 2020, and we need your help to get there!
Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the beta 3 development release and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.
Some highlights
Since beta 3, 43 bugs have been fixed. Here are a few changes in beta 4:
- Add
"loading" as an allowed kses image attribute (see #50731). - Add filter for the plugin/theme auto-update message in the Info tab of Site health (see #50663).
$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] not a reliable when generating email host names (see #25239)- Several backported fixes from Gutenberg are included in WordPress 5.5 Beta 4 (See PR #24218)
Developer notes
WordPress 5.5 has lots of refinements to polish the developer experience. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.
How to Help
Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!
If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
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WordPress 5.5 Beta 3 is now available!
This software is still in development,so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.
You can test WordPress 5.5 Beta 3 in two ways:
WordPress 5.5 is slated for release on August 11th, 2020, and we need your help to get there!
Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the beta 2 development release and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.
Some highlights
Since beta 2, 43 bugs have been fixed. Here are a few changes in beta 3:
- Plugin and theme versions are now shared in the emails when automatically updated (see #50350).
- REST API routes without a
permission_callback now trigger a _doing_it_wrong() warning (see #50075). - Over 23 Gutenberg changes and updates (see #24068 and #50712).
- A bug with the new import and export database Dashicons has been fixed (see #49913).
Developer notes
WordPress 5.5 has lots of refinements to polish the developer experience. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.
How to Help
Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!
If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
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WordPress 5.5 Beta 2 is now available!
This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.
You can test WordPress 5.5 beta 2 in two ways:
WordPress 5.5 is slated for release on August 11th, 2020, and we need your help to get there!
Thank you to all of the contributors that tested the beta 1 development release and provided feedback. Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing each release and a great way to contribute to WordPress. Here are some of the changes since beta 1 to pay close attention to while testing.
Some highlights
Since beta 1, 48 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of a few changes included in beta 2:
- 19 additional bugs have been fixed in the block editor (see #23903 and #23905).
- The Dashicons icon font has been updated (see #49913).
- Broken widgets stemming from changes in Beta 1 have been fixed (see #50609).
- Query handling when counting revisions has been improved (see #34560).
- An alternate, expanded view was added for
wp_list_table (see #49715). - Some adjustments were made to the handling of default terms for custom taxonomies (see #43517)
Several updates have been made to the block editor. For details, see #23903 and #23905.
Developer notes
WordPress 5.5 has lots of refinements to polish the developer experience. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.
How to Help
Do you speak a language other than English? Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!
If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
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WordPress 5.5 Beta 1 is now available for testing!
This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.
You can test the WordPress 5.5 beta in two ways:
The current target for final release is August 11, 2020. This is only five weeks away. Your help is needed to ensure this release is tested properly.
Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. Here are some of the big changes and features to pay close attention to while testing.
Block editor: features and improvements
WordPress 5.5 will include eleven releases of the Gutenberg plugin, bringing with it a long list of exciting new features. Here are just a few:
- Inline image editing – Crop, rotate, and zoom photos inline right from image blocks.
- Block patterns – Building elaborate pages can be a breeze with new block patterns. Several are included by default.
- Device previews – See how your content will look to users on many different screen sizes.
- End block overwhelm. The new block inserter panel displays streamlined categories and collections. As a bonus, it supports patterns and integrates with the new block directory right out of the box.
- Discover, install, and insert third-party blocks from your editor using the new block directory.
- A better, smoother editing experience with:
- Refined drag-and-drop
- Block movers that you can see and grab
- Parent block selection
- Contextual focus highlights
- Multi-select formatting lets you change a bunch of blocks at once
- Ability to copy and relocate blocks easily
- And, better performance
- An expanded design toolset for themes.
- Now add backgrounds and gradients to more kinds of blocks, like groups, columns, media & text
- And support for more types of measurements — not just pixels. Choose ems, rems, percentages, vh, vw, and more! Plus, adjust line heights while typing, turning writing and typesetting into the seamless act.
In all, WordPress 5.5 brings more than 1,500 useful improvements to the block editor experience.
To see all of the features for each release in detail check out the release posts: 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, and 8.5.
Wait! There’s more!
XML sitemaps
XML Sitemaps are now included in WordPress and enabled by default. Sitemaps are essential to search engines discovering the content on your website. Your site’s home page, posts, pages, custom post types, and more will be included to improve your site’s visibility.
Auto-updates for plugins and themes
WordPress 5.5 also brings auto-updates for plugins and themes. Easily control which plugins and themes keep themselves up to date on their own. It’s always recommended that you run the latest versions of all plugins and themes. The addition of this feature makes that easier than ever!
Lazy-loading images
WordPress 5.5 will include native support for lazy-loaded images utilizing new browser standards. With lazy-loading, images will not be sent to users until they approach the viewport. This saves bandwidth for everyone (users, hosts, ISPs), makes it easier for those with slower internet speeds to browse the web, saves electricity, and more.
Better accessibility
With every release, WordPress works hard to improve accessibility. Version 5.5 is no different and packs a parcel of accessibility fixes and enhancements. Take a look:
- List tables now come with extensive, alternate view modes.
- Link-list widgets can now be converted to HTML5 navigation blocks.
- Copying links in media screens and modal dialogs can now be done with a simple click of a button.
- Disabled buttons now actually look disabled.
- Meta boxes can now be moved with the keyboard.
- A custom logo on the front page no longer links to the front page.
- Assistive devices can now see status messages in the Image Editor.
- The shake animation indicating a login failure now respects the user’s choices in the
prefers-reduced-motion media query. - Redundant
Error: prefixes have been removed from error notices.
Miscellaneous Changes
Keep your eyes on the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.5-related developer notes in the coming weeks, breaking down these and other changes in greater detail.
So far, contributors have fixed more than 360 tickets in WordPress 5.5, including 157 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.
How You Can Help
Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!
If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac. That’s also where you can find a list of known bugs.
Props to @webcommsat, @yvettesonneveld, @estelaris, and @marybaum for compiling/writing this post, @davidbaumwald for editing/proof reading, and @cbringmann, @desrosj, and @andreamiddleton for final review.
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June was an exciting month for WordPress! Major changes are coming to the Gutenberg plugin, and WordCamp Europe brought the WordPress community closer together. Read on to learn more and to get all the latest updates.
WordPress 5.4.2 released
We said hello to WordPress 5.4.2 on June 10. This security and maintenance release features 17 fixes and 4 enhancements, so we recommend that you update your sites immediately. To download WordPress 5.4.2, visit your Dashboard, click on Updates, then Update Now, or download the latest version directly from WordPress.org. For more information, visit this post, review the full list of changes on Trac, or check out the HelpHub documentation page for version 5.4.2. WordPress 5.4.2 is a short-cycle maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.5, planned for August 2020.
Want to get involved in building WordPress Core? Follow the Core team blog, and join the #core channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.
Gutenberg 8.3 and 8.4
The core team launched Gutenberg 8.3 and 8.4 this month, paving the way for some exciting block editor features. Version 8.3 introduced enhancements like a reorganized, more intuitive set of block categories, a parent block selector, an experimental spacing control, and user-controlled link color options. Version 8.4 comes with new image-editing tools and the ability to edit options for multiple blocks. The block directory search feature that was previously available as an experimental feature, is now enabled for all Gutenberg installations. For full details on the latest versions on these Gutenberg releases, visit these posts about 8.3 and 8.4.
Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow the Core team blog, contribute to Gutenberg on GitHub, and join the #core-editor channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.
WordPress Bumps Minimum Recommended PHP Version to 7.2
In a major update, WordPress has bumped the minimum PHP recommendation to 7.2. The ServeHappy API has been updated to set the minimum acceptable PHP version to 7.2, while the WordPress downloads page recommends 7.3 or newer. Previously, the ServeHappy dashboard widget was showing the upgrade notice to users of PHP 5.6 or lower. This decision comes after discussions with the core Site Health team and the Hosting team, both of which recommended that the upgrade notice be shown to users of PHP <=7.1.
WordCamp Europe 2020 Moved Online
Following the success of a remote WordCamp Spain, WordCamp Europe was held fully online from June 4 to 6. The event drew a record 8,600 signups from people based in 138 countries, along with 2,500 signups for contributor day. WCEU Online also showcased 33 speakers and 40 sponsors, in addition to a Q&A with Matt Mullenweg. You can find the videos of the event in WordPress.tv by following this link, or you can catch the live stream recording of the entire event from the WP Europe YouTube Channel.
Want to get involved with the Community team? Follow the Community blog here, or join them in the #community-events channel in the Making WordPress Slack group. To organize a Meetup or WordCamp, visit the handbook page.
Further Reading:
- Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune), the executive director of the WordPress project, published a post that highlights resources on how the global WordPress community can focus on equity to help dismantle racial, societal, and systemic injustice.
- PHP, the primary programming language in which WordPress is written, celebrated its 25th anniversary this month!
- The Community team is updating the WordCamp code of conduct to address discrimination based on age, caste, social class, and other identifying characteristics.
- The WordPress Core team is promoting more inclusive language by updating all git repositories to use `trunk` instead of `master`. Additionally, the team proposes to rename “invalid,” “worksforme,” and “wontfix” ticket resolutions to “not-applicable,” “not-reproducible” or “cannot-reproduce,” and “not-implemented,” respectively.
- The Documentation team is working on an external linking policy and has started a discussion on how to allow linking to trusted sources to benefit users.
- The Core team has put up a proposal to merge extensible core sitemaps to WordPress core in the 5.5 release. The feature is currently available as a feature plugin.
- WordCamp Denver was held online May 26–27. The event sold over 2,400 tickets and featured 27 speakers and 20 sponsors. You can catch the recorded live stream on the event site.
- The Core team is working on updating the version of jQuery used in WordPress core.
Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please submit it here.
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